This telescope has a 3 element cemented Rolland Christen triplet for the objective. The in focus images are very sharp and the refractor only shows a dim purple halo on Venus. The out of focus spot is red on one side of focus and light green on the other. The telescope tube is not well baffled but produces an acceptably contrasty image. Focuser locks are of the non marring, cinch ring style and I believe that the focusser is manufactured by Unitron. It has an unusual feature in that there is an internal 2 " id drawtube that slip fits inside a 2.36 " focusser mechanism. It's 8 " length allows a quick change from direct viewing to use of a diagonal, but vignets the 2 " field somewhat.

These telescopes were assembled by Vernonscope using an Astro-Physics supplied triplet APO objective. well corrected and a reasonably fast f 6.8 for 640mm fl. Portable and light, mine doubles as a spotting scope. Gulls on a sandbar at 70x or so in good light at 100 yards with a 9 Nagler alows consistent examination of eye and leg color. According to the folks at Vernonscope, the demand is still high for these and they have been out of production since the early 80's, a testament to their design and build quality. A rare, shorter birder model was created and almost impossible to find. With the aforementioned eyepiece combination I have also seen 4 bands and more on Jupiter. False color is minimal, but a slight bit more than my 5 inch f/8 AP of the same vintage.I am always testing between eyepiece and scope to where the color is, many times it is with the eyepiece. The amount of false color seems about the same as the Tak fS78. Lunar detail is spectacular. Planetary seems to be a trace less bright than a C8, but the contrast and hence detail can only be bested by a very good C8. A good C8 cannot keep up with a 5 inch AP on planets. This is my experience as a seasoned visual observer, your mileage may vary. The close focus and good aperture and portability makes this a hit where spotting scopes are set up for birding, way better than a Questar.Ease of set up as well as good color correction and optics make a great planetary scope as well. Cool down is around 25 minutes compared to the 5 inch 45 minutes. A very good scope.They sell from 1200 and up, 1500 is still a good deal for a peach with extras, and the prices are rising. A fantastic eclipse chaser, and good for digiscoping. 4.5 *'s

I had been the owner of a Brandon 94 f/7 from 1995 till feb. 2000.It was the one with a baby blue tube and collimatable lenscell.

The Brandon is an extremely well built telescope incorporating Astro-Physics optics into a Unitron tube with Unitron lenscelle and heavy focuser. The collimatable lenscell is an especially good feature, although I never had to use it: it stays well collimated all the time I used it (5 years). It was at least equal on planets as my former 4" f/15 Unitron and outperformed a 150mm Lichtenknecker F-8 refractor. The only problem was the lack of good baffling the focuser and tube. It gives a lot of straylight when the moon was one degree out of field.Color correction was good, only a hard noticable purple halo on the moon.

Optics: 9Mechanics: 9Feeling when looking at this telescope: 10Feeling when looking through this telescope: 10

I have been the owner of a Brandon 94 f/7 since 1992. Acquired used shortly after purchasing a TeleVue Genesis. Field comparisons between the two resulted in the sale of the Genesis.

The Brandon is an extremely well built telescope incorporating Astro-Physics optics into a tube utilizing Unitron components. The Unitron collimatable cell is an especially good feature, allowing one to really tweek performace using a Cheshire eyepiece. This telescope frequently tops 60x per inch. It is a better planetary performer than my 4" f/15 Unitron.

I have also used in extensively for prime focus photography. It has a flat field and I have seen no false color. Recently I started using the new TeleVue.8x reducer/corrector and have been happy with the results at f/5.6.

Nice lens, but focuser on mine came with bright chrome inner drawtube surface. Plus, I found the locks insufficient for use with a camera. Finally, the 8x40 Unitron finder was the worst I've seen outside a toy telescope. Massive astigmatism made it almost useless. An archaic tube design with a nice lens in it. The case was too narrow, making it necessary to remove the drawtube and dewcap to fit the scope in.

This scope is not a 10 out of the box, a 8.5 is more like it but after some minor fixes, I became so impressed that I would ranking it 9.5 as well. The fixes come in two areas: the baffling - line the focuser tube with black velvet and paint flat black over some exposed chrome. The former being the most important. The focuser was modified using a thin teflon washer to make the movement smoother and more precise.

Color is minimal to none, surprisingly good. Star tests are up to the AP standard. Can be had for a very good price in the used market relative to current models.

I know this is an old design and no longer made, but it is available on theused market. I forgot to supply a rating on my own review, so if you could,please put my vote at 10. ( a 9.5 out of 10 would be better because of theresidual color and lack of quality baffling, but ...)

I've owned a 94mm Brandon for the last 2 years after purchasing it on the used market. Mine is a later model that doesn't have the collimateable front lens cell.

There are only 2 negative comments regarding this scope in my opinion. First, the focuser drawtubes are chrome and need lined with black flocking paper or black velvet - an easy job to fix. Secondly, the Unitron focuser is not up to the quality of the higher end units like Astro-Physics, Feathertouch or even Vixen. Still the focuser has proven to be adequate for my needs.

However, that being said, this is a wonderful scope, particularily for the dollar spent. With a f-ratio of 6.8, it excels at widefield milkyway scanning and it's optical quality (thanks to a Roland Christen triplet lens) is impressive enough to provide for some lovely planetary observing. On exceptionally steady nights, I have observed Mars and Saturn at 274x (about 74x per inch) with no image breakdown - an amazing feat for a 3.7" scope. Some chromatic aberation is evident when viewing the lunar limb, but it's minimal and I've never considered it to be a distraction. All in all, it's an impressive scope with an attractive price tag, and I have absolutely no regrets purchasing it. Highly recommended.

My Brandon 94mm f7 has a very nice flat FOV, and the stars are pinpoints. The dewshield has tiny anti reflection baffles machined into it, a nice touch. Focuser has a huge range of movement, making binoviewing possible, I used the Celestron binoviewer on it. Didnt come with a EQ or a finder........just the OTA. If I could ask for anything to be added or changed it would be to have a feathertouch focuser installed for course and fine focusing, and more aperature of course, other than that im quite happy with this little triplet refractor. It dosent say it on the OTA but after using it I consider it an APO as I saw no false color on anything at hi-mags like my other refractors do. Mars looked great during good seeing nites, could see the polar cap and continental markings from both sides of the planet. Im really looking forward to viewing the gas planets since it did so well on such a hard subject(Mars). I have it mounted on a Meade LXD55 EQ which feels just right for stability. Compared to my Celestron 8" schmidt side by side when pushed to the same mags the Brandon got dimmer because of its lens size but the image still looked quite contrasty. It easly accepted my Televue 4.8 Nagler with power to spare, that alone sold me on its quality of the triplet lens figure. Lens anti reflective coating looks great and works well. Hard to believe it was made in 1990 it looks new still really. Definatly was made of quality materials thru out.

I bought this used a couple months ago and have been very pleased considering the amount spent ($1400). The focuser is a not up to AP or Televue standards, and I am planning to do some work on the internal reflection problems. At a star party, views of Mars and a few M-objects much sharper than an 8" SCT, at least equal to a Televue 101, and just slightly less contrast on Mars than a Traveler. I am using it with a homemade (microscope head) binoviwer, and can reach focus without a Barlow. Great performer with a 19 mm Panoptic, and planets are sharp with a 4 mm Takahashi ortho (164x).